Queen ants in southern Europe produce male clones of an entirely different species — tearing up the playbook of reproductive biology and suggesting we need to rethink our understanding of species barriers.
The workers in Iberian harvester ant (Messor ibericus) colonies are all hybrids, with queens needing to mate with males from a distantly related species, Messor structor, to keep the colony functioning. But researchers found that some Iberian harvester ant populations have no M. structor colonies nearby.
-copy-29e15046.jpeg?w=600)
